


Untitled Ice Hockey AU

by bysine



Series: 2014 drabble requests [4]
Category: Arashi (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Hockey, Gen, Ice Skating, figure skating
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-05
Updated: 2014-12-05
Packaged: 2018-02-28 06:47:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,222
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2722697
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bysine/pseuds/bysine
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Faily sports AU. In which Nino plays ice hockey even though he is too small, gets angry a lot. In which Ohno is a figure skater. Inspired by: the Shiyagare episode with Arakawa Shizuka, and Nino's face.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Untitled Ice Hockey AU

**Author's Note:**

> As I said in an email to calerine: I randomly wrote an extra unrequested drabble featuring Nino as the WORST ICE HOCKEY PLAYER EVER idek how this happened except oh wait I do - because there was that Shiyagare episode where Arakawa Shizuka came to teach them how to figure skate... and Ohno was the Best Skater and I thought, ooh an Ohno figure skating AU would be great... with Nino as an ICE HOCKEY PLAYER except that he is legits too small, it would be hilarious. And then this happened hahahahahahah ;___; weeping

The first time Nino met Aiba was at the tryout for their university's ice hockey team. Aiba had skated over to Nino to gently and politely tell him that the under-18 team was holding their tryouts in the afternoon.

"Is that so?" Nino had replied, before neatly tripping Aiba and skating off to line up for the skill drill. 

They both ended up on the team, mostly because not enough players had tried out. The coach looked at Nino with a mix of pity and consternation that day, shoving the team jersey (Nichidai Rabbits, it said) into his hands and saying, "Well, maybe you'll grow." 

Nino didn't. 

He tried to make up for it with speed and dexterity. In those early games, he fell down a lot just from getting checked by other players. Aiba tried to help Nino by skating near him during games to stop opponents from bumping Nino, but since Aiba wasn't much heavier or taller than average, he only ended up getting in Nino's way.

"I don't need you to protect me!" Nino shouted, the fourth time he missed a shot because Aiba had inadvertently blocked his path. 

Aiba skated away, looking stung. 

"Breaking up with your boyfriend?" shouted someone in the bleachers. Shortly after that, one of the Waseda players hooked Nino, sending him sprawling on the ice again while the puck skidded away. 

The referee didn't even have time to call it. Nino scrambled to his feet, flung down his stick, ripped off his gloves, and punched the guy in the face.

There was a hushed silence as the guy stumbled and landed heavily on the ice. Nino himself lost his balance and tripped as well. And then someone – a girl's voice – shrieked, "WAY TO GO, CHIBIUSA!" and the spectators exploded into cheers.

"Why the heck are you cheering for another team?" exclaimed the Waseda captain, while the referees hauled an enraged Nino off into the penalty box. 

"Just who," shouted Nino, "are you calling Chibiusa?"

After that, players from the other teams took to calling Nino Chibiusa just to get a rise out of him, and he charged them every time. He also scored a fair bit. Mostly, though, he spent a lot of time in the penalty box. 

By the middle of Nino's first season on the team, people were actually coming to watch the games just to see him play. They also came just to see him get mad. 

"I think they see you as a kind of tragic figure," said Narimiya, their team captain, while Nino held a bag of frozen peas to his black eye after a game. Earlier, the crowd had cheered ecstatically when Nino got into an altercation with one of the Toyo wingers, a guy named Okada who wasn't afraid to pull his punches. 

"I actually score," said Nino, "nobody seems to notice that."

Aiba sighed. "That's because you end up fighting the defencemen after that."

"The only reason why they haven't ejected you is because you don't actually do much damage to anyone but yourself," Narimiya continued. "Also, we kind of have a fan club now."

To be exact, it was a twitter account maintained by Chinen Yuri, one of the more intrepid members of the editorial society. @usagidaigaku had originally been intended to provide updates on the university's various athletic competitions. And then one day, Chinen had posted a video of Nino getting into a mostly futile fight with a Meiji player approximately twice his size. 'We believe in Chibiusa', read the caption. It had garnered a variety of responses ranging from 'why is that shrimp even playing ice hockey' to 'CHIBIUSA, PRIDE OF NICHIDAI'. @usagidaigaku also gained about a hundred more followers. From then on, Chinen just posted updates of hockey games and pictures of Nino looking enraged as he was ordered off the ice.

The other thing @usagidaigaku provided was a constant supply of updates about the university's figure skating club. Specifically, the tweets concerned one Ohno Satoshi, who had placed third in the national figure skating championship the previous year and who was going to skate for Japan at the next World Championship. He was meant to share two classes with Nino but had only turned up for one lecture in the entire semester. According to @usagidaigaku, he had been asleep for the entire lecture. (Nino, on the other hand, had spent the entire lecture reliving the spectacular goal he had scored during the previous day's game against Keio. The goalie's cry of shock and anguish after the puck had flown right over him had been like music to Nino's ears. Sakurai's expressions were always the best; it was a pity no one could see them behind the mask.)

The thing was that while Nino was probably only ironically called the pride of Nichidai, Ohno was actually the Pride of the University, and probably of the entire Greater Kanto Region. And, from the gushing articles that Chinen kept retweeting, it seemed that there would come a day in the near future when Ohno would most certainly be the Pride of Japan. Nobody made up stupid nicknames for Ohno Satoshi, Nino noted. He was simply Ohno-senpai. 

In the weeks when Ohno wasn't off at some competition, the rink was always priority booked for his exclusive practice. It was infuriating because their hockey training would then be adjourned to some far-flung rink in the middle of nowhere. 

It also meant that Nino had never seen Ohno skate before. 

This changed on a cold Monday morning, one week into Nino's break from hockey (doctor's orders; he had hurt his shoulder again getting slammed into the boards). With the rest of the team away at training, Nino decided to take a walk over the rink to see if he could sneak in some skating on his own. He didn't expect to see Ohno practicing his routine alone with no accompaniment but the music in his head, the rink echoing with the sound of his skates scraping against the ice as he performed a triple lutz jump. 

It was sublime. Ohno skated with a terrible precision, transitioning from one move to the next with seemingly no effort at all. He executed some of his turns like they were mere afterthoughts, easy as breathing. And when Ohno ended his routine with a combination of jumps that Nino didn't know the names of, sliding gracefully to a halt at one end of the rink, Nino realised that he had been holding his breath. 

"Oh." Ohno had noticed Nino by the side of the rink. He was skating over before Nino could make a hasty escape. And as he approached, Nino understood why Chinen was so bent on taking as many photos of Ohno-senpai as he could. "Do you need the rink now?" 

"I'm sorry for interrupting," said Nino. "I'll be going now."

"Okay," said Ohno, as Nino picked up his duffel bag and hockey stick and turned to go. And then: "Wait." 

"Yes?" 

Ohno furrowed his perfect brow. "I've seen you somewhere." 

"Introduction to Politics?" 

"Hm," said Ohno. "Do I take that class?" 

Nino knew for a fact that he did (because of Chinen), but kept quiet out of politeness. 

And then Ohno beamed with realisation, and it was wonderful. 

"I know!" he said, clapping his hands together. "You're Chibiusa!"

**Author's Note:**

> Chibiusa is also a Sailor Moon character. I also read about ice hockey in Japan, because accuracy. It exists but the Japanese league was discontinued and now they have an Asian league. As for varsity hockey, all the universities named have hockey teams that play in various intercollegiate games, except Nihon University/Nichidai. That's just fiction.


End file.
